Sunday, 16 November 2014

Age of Anxiety Triple Bill

Ceremony of Innocence/ Age of Anxiety/ Aeternum, Royal Opera House - reviewed on 7th November
The Royal Ballet's latest triple bill combines a world premiere, a London premiere and a revival, all loosely tied together by the fact that they use music created during the 1930s and 1940s.

Liam Scarlett's The Age of Anxiety forms the centrepiece. Both its choreography and accompanying score (by Leonard Bernstein) are inspired by W. H. Auden’s 1947 poem of the same name. Three men (Steven McRae, Bennet Gartside and Tristan Dyer) and one woman (Laura Morera) form an unlikely friendship around bar stools and bottles of beer, continuing to socialise until early the next morning in the woman's apartment.

The four characters are enticingly portrayed across a range of emotions from despair to lust. Towards the end, the ballet starts to feel repetitive, but a gay subplot provides renewed interest in the final moments. The Age of Anxiety is a testament to Scarlett’s ability to create both effective narrative and interesting classical choreography onstage.